Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-05-07
noe FECIT
DoRoruEA vINcry.

IN EARTH AND SKYE AND SEA
STRANGE THYNGEs TIER BE.
noe FEcIT
DoRoTHEA vINCEY.
Perfectly bewildered, turned the relic
over. II was covered from top to bottom
with notes and signatures in Greek, Latin
and English. The first in uncial Greek was
by Tisisthenes, tho son to whom the writing
was addressed 1t was: ~ can not go. To
thee, my SON Kallilrates."
! This KaliIlrates probably, In the Greek
fashion, so named after his grandfather evil
IDENTIFY made some attempt to start on tho
quest, for his entry, written in very faint and
almost illegible uncial, is: II started 10 seek
but the gods were against me- To thee, my
son."
Between these two ancient writings, the
second Of which was inscribed upside down
that, had it not been for the transcript OF
them executed by vincey, l should not have
been able to read since, owing to their hav-
ing been written on that portion Of the tile
which had in the course Of ages undergone
the most handling, they were nearly worn
out-was the bold, modern signature OF Lionel
Vincey, "Etate suo In which was written
thereon, think, by Leo's grandfather. To
the right of this were the initials ~. b. W"
and below came variety Of Greek sigma
lures in uncial and cursive character, and
what appeared to be some repetitions of the
sentence ito thee my son." showing that the
relic has been passed on from generation to
generation.
The next legible thing after the Greek sig
natures was the word "RoMAE, A. U. O.,
showing that the family had now migrated
to Rome. Unfortunately, however, the dato
Of their settlement there is forever lost, fol-
just where it had been placed piece Of The
potsherd is broken away
Then followed dozen or more of Latir
signatures, jotted about here and there
wherever there was space upon the til'
suitable to their inscription. These sigma
lures were, almost without exception, ended
with the name "Vindex," or "The Avenger,
which seems to have been adopted by tin
family after its migration to Rome as q kint
Of equivalent to the Grecian "Tisisthenes,
which also means an avenger. Ultimately, o
course, this Latin cognomen Of Vindex wa
transformed, first into De Vincey and thei
into the plain modern Vincey. 1t is very
curious to observe how the idea of revenge
inspired by an Egyptian before the time o
|
English family name.
A few of the Roman names inscribed upoi
! the sherd / have actually since found men
, toned in history and other records. The.
were, IL l remember right:
MvssIvs. vINDEx
SEX, vARIvs. MARvLLvs.
J @. FvFIDIvs. Q. y. vINDEX.
And
LABEnIA PoAiPEIANA. CoNIvx. MACRINI
, vINDIcIs.
The last being, of course, that Of Roman
lady. After tho Roman names there is evi
IDENTIFY q gap of very many centuries. Nobod,
I will ever know now what was the history of tn
relic during those dark ages, or how it cam
} to have been preserved in the family. M,
/ poor friend Vincey had, it will be remem
, bered, told me that his Roman ancestor
, finally settled in Lombardy, and when Char
/ lemagne invaded it returned with him acres
: the Alps, and made their home in Brittany
) whence they crossed to England in the reig7
, of Edward the Confessor. How he knew thi
D am not aware, for there is no reference T.
t Lombardy or Charlemagne upon the tile
/ though, as will presently be seen, there is
{ reference to Brittany To continue: The mex
! entries on the sherd, If / may except lon
{ splash either of blood or red coloring matte
| Of some sort, consists of two crosses drawn i
a red pigments, and probably Representing
] Crusaders swords and an almost obliterate
0 monogram ("D.V. v in scarlet and blue, per
t haps executed by that same Dorothea Vince
Q who wrote, or rather painted, the doggert
; coiIplet.
: Then came what was perhaps as curious o.
: entry as anything upon this extraordinar
{ relic of the past. 1t is executed in black lei
s ter written over the crosses or Crusader
' swords, and dated 1445. AS the best plan wi
\ DO to allow it to speak for itself, here civ
the original Latin, of course without the COZ
4 fractions. from which it will be seen that th
v writer was fair medieval Latinist. AlsC
t we discovered what is still more curious,
r modernized version of black letter tran
r lation of the Latin which we found inscribe
s on a second parchment that was in the COFFEE
@ apparently older in date than that on whic
It was inscribed the Latin black letter transl,
Q ton of the uncial Greek:
d EXPANDED VERSION OF THE BLACK LETTE
% INSCRIPTION ON THE sHERD OF AMENAI
p TAS.
: ''Ista reliquia est valde misticum ct myr
i ficum opus, quod majores mel ex Armoric,
4 scilicet Britannia Minore, secum conveh,
a bant; ct quidam sanctus clericus semper pat
\ meo in manu- ferebat quod pentus illud destr,
\ eret, afiirmans quod esset alb ipso Sathana COZ
"a fiatum prestigiosa ct dyabolica arte, quar-
,s pater meus confregit illud in duas parties. qut
q auidem ego Johannes de Vinceto salvas SCI
n yavi ct sadaptavi sicut apparel die lur
:. proximo post festum beate M. > Virgin
ami Cratic MCCCCXLV.n
# MoDERNIzED VERSION OF THE BLACK LIE
TER TRANSLATION.